Onscreen text

A majority of video in ALEX is onscreen text paired with voiceover. It’s pretty easy to make someone’s eyes glaze over with long stretches of text—so it’s important to scrutinize every word we put on screen.

Onscreen text in ALEX should be concise, informative, and exact. It rewards the user’s attention by giving them information written and edited as clearly as we can possibly muster. Typically, that means following a few principles:

Match VO and text as closely as possible. People tend to learn better when they’re reading and hearing information simultaneously; it’s hard to absorb information when you’re seeing one thing but hearing another. We don’t want to force the user to choose between reading or listening.

But use only as much text as needed. Find the clearest amount of onscreen text that can be rendered in as few words as possible. Cut conversational asides, and condense verbiage where it’s sensible to do so. Reducing just one wordy block of text may not seem like much—but multiplied across dozens of spoken lines, the effect adds up.

Limit each text block to one sentence. This draws the eye and ear to each piece of information as it’s spoken. This has two benefits: it makes the experience more lively, and helps the viewer remember details better, as the voice and text are more closely tied together.

No matter what, all text should be crystal clear without sound. The user should be able to tune out, or mute their sound, and come back without feeling lost. Especially look out for any referential pronouns, such as the word “this” (e.g. “This coverage is offered at no cost”). Is the “this” clear in the onscreen text alone? In cases where mirroring text conflicts with understanding without sound, favor the latter.

Bold sparingly. In video, bolding should only be used to emphasize critical, don’t-miss information. Mind its inverse: when everything is emphasized, nothing is.